Foods & Tips to Get You Through Morning Sickness

I can honestly say that morning sickness was the worst 12 week period of my life ever. I wasn't hospitalized due to my morning sickness, but I still ended up pretty much bed-ridden for 3 months of my life. I lost weight due to hardly being able to eat, and when I could eat, I still wasn't able to eat sufficiently to gain much weight. Thankfully it only lasted from around 4 weeks, to about 15 weeks for me, but some others have sickness that lasts their entire pregnancy.

I had to stop going to college because I literally couldn't even stand up for more than a couple of minutes without feeling like I was going to faint and vomiting.

Here's what I ate, and the tips that got me through those 3 months.

Food:
Pretty much the only proper food I could eat was :
Chicken Breast - lightly done with only salt & pepper.After this I could move on to Chicken Breast w/ toast & BBQ sauce. It sounds disgusting but it's really not bad.
I also tried to eat bread with whatever I was eating since that would settle my stomach a bit.

Beverages:
For some reason I wasn't really able to keep down water, so apple juice and sprite seemed to settle my stomach. It's important to take small sips of whatever you can handle to cut down the likelihood that you'll bring it back up

Snacks:
Dry Crackers: hardly the most appetizing, but dry crackers like Ryvita were one of the only things that would curb my nausea somewhat.

Corn pops or any dry cereal such as rice crispies. Cereal was okay for me as well. I don't take milk anyways so it wasn't a struggle to eat dry cereal.

Hard Candy: hard candy is a life saver. Morning sickness can leave this horrible taste in your mouth that makes you feel even more nauseous. It also helped me to be around other smells and not be as affected by them, since I had something that tasted nice in my mouth.

Pretzels: Like all the other starchy things, pretzels went down well too. I like the hard-dough salted kind and they sure beat just plain crackers !

Tips:

• Eating Little: Don't try to pack your stomach full of food. Chances are you'll see it again pronto, so try to pace yourself eating smaller portions.
• Eating Often: Since you'll be eating smaller portions, you need to eat more often. It's better to eat 5-6 times than try to have 3 large meals. I found if I ate something small every 2-3 hrs that minimized the nausea.
• Drinking enough fluids: You need to make sure that you are getting enough liquid into your body. You might not want to drink more since it seems like you live in the bathroom right now, but you're literally growing a small person and you NEED the water in your body to stay hydrated. Trust me, if you get dehydrated you'll only feel worse. Being more tired than you are right now IS possible and WILL happen if you allow yourself to become dehydrated.
• Taking a ginger supplement or Gravol: depending on your views on taking medication during pregnancy , you could try either ginger ( for natural advocates) or Gravol.

 My doctor recommended Gravol to me, but I personally don't like to take any medication if I can help it, since doctors don't know exactly how it could adversely affect YOUR baby. Even if they have been 'studied' everyone is different and I like to keep the risks minimal. Even those medications that have been tested mostly aren't tested in depth... and I don't blame them. I wouldn't want to test drugs during pregnancy either.

Ginger nut biscuits saved my life but you could try ginger tea if you don't like those biscuits.

• Don't try to eat too fast:  Trying to eat too much or too fast will only result in you tasting your food a second time. Trust me - it never tastes good the second time around.
• Distract yourself when eating: rather than concentrating on how much you don't want to eat. I found if I read a book, or tried to concentrate on something on TV while eating I could eat a little more than if I was just sitting down with my food and no distractions. 
• Sit up straight while you're eating: You probably just want to lay down, but trust me - acid reflux is THE last thing that you want.

Foods to Avoid:
Onion
Fish
Heavily Fried/ Seasoned Stuff

Morning sickness is one of the most testing symptoms of pregnancy and it's important to deal with it the right way. If you're going through it right now, don't let it get you down.

Everything is for a season, and this too shall pass. It doesn't matter if you can't eat the healthiest diet, or do the 5 work outs a week that you had planned. As long as you're taking pre-natal vitamins your baby is getting EVERYTHING it needs to grow healthily and that's all that matters.

I spent too much of my time feeling sorry for myself and I regret it, so don't let that be you.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not a doctor or medical health professional. Eat these foods and try these medications at your own discretion and consult your doctor before taking any new medications, especially while pregnant.